The gay science the madman

Philosophy has, in Heidegger's words, reached its maximum potential as metaphysics and Nietzsche's words warn of its demise and that of any metaphysical world view. If theology must now accept a dialectical vocation, it must learn the full meaning of Yes-saying and No-saying; it must sense the possibility of a Yes which can become a No, and of a No which can become a Yes; in short, it must look forward to a dialectical coincidentia oppositorum. This page was last edited on 14 September , at What is more, Zarathustra later refers not only to the death of God, but states: Yet, the interconnection and the unitary movement of the world, which are the reasons that lead philosophers to pantheism , are undeniable. The western world had depended on the rule of God for thousands of years — it gave order to society and meaning to life. Earlier in the book section , Nietzsche wrote "God is Dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown.

God is Dead

Nietzsche recognized the crisis that this "Death of God" represented for existing moral assumptions in Europe as they existed within the context of traditional Christian belief. Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? The meaning of the phrase is often misunderstood — many have interpereted that Nietzsche believed in a literal death or end of God. Wikiquote has quotations related to: For the most part Altizer prefers mystical to ethical language in solving the problem of the death of God, or, as he puts it, in mapping out the way from the profane to the sacred. This deed is still more distant from them than the most distant stars — and yet they have done it themselves.

Friedrich Nietzsche writes his famous declaration, God is dead several times throughout his works. This combination of Kierkegaard and Eliade makes rather rough reading, but his position at the end is a relatively simple one. What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Nietzsche used the phrase to sum up the effect and consequence that the Age of Enlightenment had had on the centrality of the concept of God within Western European civilization , which had been essentially Christian in character since the later Roman Empire. University Of Illinois Press.